Bad Calls and Hell: Soccer teaches theology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you're an American and you care about the World Cup at all, you know about the third goal in our game last Friday; the non-goal; the disallowed goal.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/22\/bad-calls-and-hell-soccer-teaches-theology\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bad Calls and Hell: Soccer teaches theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you're an American and you care about the World Cup at all, you know about the third goal in our game last Friday; the non-goal; the disallowed goal.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/22\/bad-calls-and-hell-soccer-teaches-theology\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fibonacci Faith: Changing Everything\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-22T15:39:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/cdn.bleacherreport.net\/images_root\/images\/photos\/000\/975\/020\/102200977_crop_340x234.jpg?1276947997\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Richard Dahlstrom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Richard Dahlstrom\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/22\/bad-calls-and-hell-soccer-teaches-theology\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/22\/bad-calls-and-hell-soccer-teaches-theology\/\",\"name\":\"Bad Calls and Hell: Soccer teaches theology\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-06-22T15:39:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-06-22T15:39:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/#\/schema\/person\/35cc34ea723fe19cdf6bfe9446fde728\"},\"description\":\"If you're an American and you care about the World Cup at all, you know about the third goal in our game last Friday; the non-goal; the disallowed goal.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/22\/bad-calls-and-hell-soccer-teaches-theology\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/22\/bad-calls-and-hell-soccer-teaches-theology\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/22\/bad-calls-and-hell-soccer-teaches-theology\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bad Calls and Hell: Soccer teaches theology\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/\",\"name\":\"Fibonacci Faith: Changing Everything\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Richard Dahlstrom\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/#\/schema\/person\/35cc34ea723fe19cdf6bfe9446fde728\",\"name\":\"Richard Dahlstrom\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c70ef6941167d00acda35b40d90cb1e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c70ef6941167d00acda35b40d90cb1e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Richard Dahlstrom\"},\"description\":\"As Pastor of Bethany Community Church in Seattle, Richard teaches with vision of \\\"making the invisible God visible\\\" by calling people to acts of service and blessing. It's working, as a wilderness ministry, homeless shelter, and community meals that serve those living on the margins are all pieces of Bethany's life. \\\"We're being the presence of Christ\\\" he says, \\\"and inviting everyone to join the adventure.\\\" Many have, making Bethany one of the fastest growing churches in America in 2009 according to Outreach Magazine.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/author\/richarddahlstrom\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bad Calls and Hell: Soccer teaches theology","description":"If you're an American and you care about the World Cup at all, you know about the third goal in our game last Friday; the non-goal; the disallowed goal.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/22\/bad-calls-and-hell-soccer-teaches-theology\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bad Calls and Hell: Soccer teaches theology","og_description":"If you're an American and you care about the World Cup at all, you know about the third goal in our game last Friday; the non-goal; the disallowed goal.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/22\/bad-calls-and-hell-soccer-teaches-theology\/","og_site_name":"Fibonacci Faith: Changing Everything","article_published_time":"2010-06-22T15:39:05+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/cdn.bleacherreport.net\/images_root\/images\/photos\/000\/975\/020\/102200977_crop_340x234.jpg?1276947997"}],"author":"Richard Dahlstrom","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Richard Dahlstrom","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/22\/bad-calls-and-hell-soccer-teaches-theology\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/22\/bad-calls-and-hell-soccer-teaches-theology\/","name":"Bad Calls and Hell: Soccer teaches theology","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-06-22T15:39:05+00:00","dateModified":"2010-06-22T15:39:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/#\/schema\/person\/35cc34ea723fe19cdf6bfe9446fde728"},"description":"If you're an American and you care about the World Cup at all, you know about the third goal in our game last Friday; the non-goal; the disallowed goal.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/22\/bad-calls-and-hell-soccer-teaches-theology\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/22\/bad-calls-and-hell-soccer-teaches-theology\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/22\/bad-calls-and-hell-soccer-teaches-theology\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bad Calls and Hell: Soccer teaches theology"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/","name":"Fibonacci Faith: Changing Everything","description":"The Blog of Richard Dahlstrom","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/#\/schema\/person\/35cc34ea723fe19cdf6bfe9446fde728","name":"Richard Dahlstrom","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c70ef6941167d00acda35b40d90cb1e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c70ef6941167d00acda35b40d90cb1e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Richard Dahlstrom"},"description":"As Pastor of Bethany Community Church in Seattle, Richard teaches with vision of \"making the invisible God visible\" by calling people to acts of service and blessing. It's working, as a wilderness ministry, homeless shelter, and community meals that serve those living on the margins are all pieces of Bethany's life. \"We're being the presence of Christ\" he says, \"and inviting everyone to join the adventure.\" Many have, making Bethany one of the fastest growing churches in America in 2009 according to Outreach Magazine.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/author\/richarddahlstrom\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":481,"date":"2010-06-22T09:39:05","date_gmt":"2010-06-22T15:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/raincitypastor.wordpress.com\/?p=481"},"modified":"2010-06-22T09:39:05","modified_gmt":"2010-06-22T15:39:05","slug":"bad-calls-and-hell-soccer-teaches-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/22\/bad-calls-and-hell-soccer-teaches-theology\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Calls and Hell: Soccer teaches theology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

If you\u2019re an American and you care about the World Cup at all, you know about the third goal in our game last Friday; the non-goal; the disallowed goal<\/a>. \u00a0The blown call has the whole soccer world up in arms because it was such an obvious breach of justice. \u00a0The ref\u2019s \u00a0 Wiki page <\/a>was defaced within minutes of the blown call, and there has even been a revival of discussions about the use of video replay<\/a> in soccer, because it\u2019s obvious to everyone that it\u2019s a better game if officials get the call right.<\/p>\n

Right. \u00a0The word shares it\u2019s root with the word \u201cRighteous\u201d, and both are also rooted in the universal notion of justice that seems to course through the veins of humanity. \u00a0We\u2019re outraged at Rwandan genocide, and more recently, Kyrgyzstan, just as we are at pedophilia, missing children, and so much more. \u00a0We have longings, deep inside us, for the way the world ought to be, and when it isn\u2019t that way, we\u2019re offended. \u00a0But we\u2019re more than offended \u2013 we want things made right. \u00a0That\u2019s why there are courts, and military tribunals, and war crimes trials. \u00a0We want justice. \u00a0When it\u2019s a blown call at a World Cup match, we yell at the TV and move on. \u00a0When it\u2019s real life, it can suck the air out of our lungs as we mourn and grieve.<\/p>\n

And yet, in educated places like Seattle, the average person on the streets doesn\u2019t like the notion of hell. \u00a0\u201cGod shouldn\u2019t send people away, not if he\u2019s loving\u201d is sort of the way we think. \u00a0Still, we want those who murder, and rape, and steal, sent away. \u00a0Can you see the contradiction? \u00a0We want God to accept everyone, but we also want to live in a just world. \u00a0Here\u2019s important news: \u00a0If it\u2019s going to be a just world, it will be because God roots out all injustice, and that will happen because of God\u2019s intervention to confine wickedness, so that the world of justice and peace for which we all long can finally happen.<\/p>\n

Do you want to live in a just world? \u00a0Me too. \u00a0At least 4000 years of human history make it clear that this won\u2019t happen without intervention. \u00a0Left to our own devices, evil will find its way into cultures and will, by force, seek to reign. \u00a0This is why the doctrines of judgement and hell are important. \u00a0You can argue about the literal or metaphorical nature of the flames, but it misses the point. \u00a0The point is this: \u00a0we long for justice and God, who is love, is committed to creating a just world, precisely because God is love, and love demands justice.<\/p>\n

Our offense at injustice is present at every level, from blown calls to genocide. \u00a0We rightly want the world to be right and the good news is this: \u00a0God will make it right. \u00a0That\u2019s why the Bibles praises God for his judgements (as seen in so many places<\/a>), a counter-intuitive notion to our modern minds, but utterly sensible if we\u2019ll but take a moment and think about.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"